And it turned out OK! I french seamed all of the inside and it looks beautiful! I think I still need to cut a slice out of the neckline of the dress as it has some excess fabric there which can look strange. I thought I might have to lower the neckline very slightly but in actually wearing this I realised that I didn't need to, it didn't catch my neck at all.
Emma in London
Monday, 2 February 2015
Sewing my Anna Peplum hack!
And it turned out OK! I french seamed all of the inside and it looks beautiful! I think I still need to cut a slice out of the neckline of the dress as it has some excess fabric there which can look strange. I thought I might have to lower the neckline very slightly but in actually wearing this I realised that I didn't need to, it didn't catch my neck at all.
Monday, 5 January 2015
Sewing plans for 2015
The Secrets of Sewing Lingerie by Katherine Sheers and Laura Stanford - I don't want to waste my off cut material where there is very little of it so I thought I could use it to make underwear - this book does not cover underwired bras however, I think as an introduction to sewing lingerie it is great - and not intimidating for a beginner who knows their way round a sewing machine. I very much need to start on something which I will succeed at to give me the motivation to carry on!
Famous Frocks The Little Black Dress by Dolin Bliss O'Shea: The exact opposite as above this is a book with 20 dress patterns designed so you can recreate famous dresses worn by celebrities in every decade from the 1920s onwards. This is probably a book I will reserve until I have a little more experience however, I really liked the lines of some of these patterns and enjoyed reading the front of the book. I also would like to make a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding in May so perhaps that will come from this book.
I also picked up a Fashionary notebook from the V&A a while ago (currently on sale!) which I have just started to use - this notebook is brilliant for anyone who wants to draw out their clothes silhouettes and try ideas with colour but isn't confident drawing people silhouettes. Each page has a dotted outline of a woman in pink dots which you can then draw the clothes on top of.
Here are some ideas I put together for the By Hand London Charlotte Skirt pattern and also the Megan dress by Tilly and the Buttons. And I am definitely not an artist - so anyone could use this.
I have a few patterns collected from various places that I am itching to get on with:
The By Hand London patterns I picked up from Anthropologie while they were on sale about a year ago and the other two came from magazines. I don't think the Simplicity pattern is in my style at all so that one might be donated elsewhere. So plenty to start with! I also downloaded the pdf for the Emmeline t-shirt by the Little Tailors but unfortunately when I printed it at my parents' house over Christmas the printer failed to print the first half of the pages so I am now a little stuck until I can get that.
I am really looking forward to expanding my basic skill set this year and starting to make some basics that I will be able to incorporate into my capsule wardrobe for both work and casual wear.
Friday, 2 January 2015
So I started to sew clothes!
Just before December started I decided to make use of the sewing machine bought for me by my Grandma and make some clothes. Some back ground here - we were taught textiles for 3 years in secondary school and I was absolutely terrible at it! At the time I couldn't see the point of learning something non-academic and I had not yet learnt how to persevere with something I wasn't good at straight away. I remember making the most horrendous pair of pyjamas when I was 13 and I haven't tried to make clothes ever since!
However, I find fast fashion repellant and although a lot of fabric has the same ethical issues and fast clothing you do take out a step in the chain and don't spend your money funding people to exploit sewing workers. I also am a slightly odd shape (petite, small waist, large hips) that means that ready-to-wear clothes can be tricky to get in the fit that I would like. I think I also have quite a defined style in terms of the colours and shapes that I know suit me which should help with choosing patterns.
I started by getting Tilly Walnes's book 'Love at First Stitch' as having flicked through it there are detailed step by step instructions with clear pictures and although you learn by making the garments which come with the book - not all of which fit into my personal style, the techniques are transferrable. So far I have made the Margot pyjama bottoms in a quirky cotton fabric from a shop on Goldhawk road, and the Megan dress and Delphine a-line skirt (with invisible zips) in a textured fabric also from Goldhawk Road. This is midway through construction of the dress:
Although I did make a muslim for the dress the bodice still wasn't quite right but it was good practice! The fabric was £6 per metre and I used just under 2m for this.
I don't have any pictures of the skirt as I got the interfacing all wrong so the waistband stood away from my waist and looked very strange! But I did learn how to do french seams and got the invisible zip to match at the waist.
The pyjamas went really well but then they are not fitted!
Sunday, 21 September 2014
Why is giving up shopping so hard
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Reducing food packaging waste
The most obvious first step for me in reducing waste is eliminating food packaging from our weekly shop. We currently live in Acton and are fairly close to both a Saturday farmer's market (at Notting Hill Gate) and also two bulk grocery stores (one in Maida Vale and the other on High Street Kensington).
This weekend I went to the farmer's market to see what was available there and was pleasantly surprised. There was plentiful veg, bread and meat (sadly all the meat was pre packaged) and also a stall selling mushrooms and one selling bacon and egg sandwiches. I picked up some mushrooms and a handful of tomatoes to try and will take Stuart back next weekend to do it properly. We definitely would need to take some smaller fabric bags to put the veg in to avoid the plastic ones on offer at every stall.
I then made the trip north to Maida Vale to investigate the Dry Goods Store, only to discover that it was closed until the 2nd September while the owner recovers from a broken foot. However from what I could see through the window it looks pretty good- rows of dispensers. After a little search on the Internet it turns out they do a good coffee as well! Here is the (pretty rubbish) photo I took while I was there.
I am so excited to go back and do a proper scout out of the shop.
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Going Zero Waste
I recently acquired the book Zero Waste Home. It is a how to manual for reducing the amount of waste that you produce- both that for landfill and for recycling. Since I live in a one bed flat in relatively central London some of the suggestions seemed pretty unachievable at first glance - one of the main methods that is advocated is composting! We have since worked out some plans around this that I am very excited to share.
What we plan to do:
-shop in locations where you can take your own jars to avoid packaging (luckily for us someone else has done the research for our part of London- see the app Bulk)
-plan meals; be conscientious about how much food we buy and how quickly it will go off, to reduce food waste, use tops of vegetables to make soups and juices
-install a small indoor composting system for items that we cannot use in another way, which we will use the products from to supply our large number of house plants
-buy secondhand where possible
-I will maintain my capsule wardrobe; making considered choices which are trend free and therefore longer lasting
-I aim to move to a capsule makeup collection however it will take a while to implement this as I attempt to use up all of the products I currently own
Why?
The important question is why move to a zero waste aim at all. I studied Ecology at university and have a good understanding of our overuse of the natural resources available to us and also the horrors of landfill. If we can only send 1-5 litres to landfill every year we will be making some significant change. I also hope to inspire some thoughtfulness in my similarly minded friends as to changes they could implement to reduce waste.
We will share our trials and let you know our success and things that don't work for us.